This invention relates to a mechanism for dispensing individual coffee filter papers from a stack of filter papers, whereby the individual filter paper is made available for use in a coffee maker.
Under conventional practice coffee filter papers are supplied to the user in the form of a stack of papers in nested relationship; usually the stack of filter papers comes to the user in a square cardboard box slightly larger than the diameter of the filter paper stack. The box is often stored in the vicinity of the coffee maker where the user can remove individual filter papers, as needed to make new pots of coffee.
The nested relationship of the filter papers causes the papers to be semi-tightly adhered to one another. The filter papers are very thin, such that the edges of the individual papers are very close together; it is difficult for the average user to grasp an individual paper for extraction from the stack. Often the user inadvertantly removes several filter papers from the stack. Since the user can make use of only one paper at a time he or she must separate one paper from the other extracted papers, and then return the other papers back into the box. The returned filter papers tend to collect loosely in the box, sometimes overflowing the box.